This invention relates generally to systems and methods for using an interface module and an enhanced protocol to perform a financial transaction and, more particularly, to network-based systems and methods for using a computer-to-computer interface and protocol extensions to communicate data between computer devices when performing a financial transaction initiated by a cardholder using a transaction card with a merchant.
Financial transaction cards are widely used in the United States and elsewhere as a means to attract financial accounts to financial institutions and, in the case of credit cards, as a medium to create small loans and generate interest income for financial institutions.
The financial transaction card industry is subject to certain well-known problems. For example, in the credit card industry, it is well-known that at least some persons will engage in fraudulent activities through either the theft of a credit card or a credit card number. The utilization of financial transaction cards in online transactions exacerbates the risk of fraudulent activity. Financial transaction card companies have thus implemented increased security measures to reduce the instances of such fraudulent activity. These increased security measures utilize a standardized protocol for communicating transaction information between computer devices, and require a user to provide access credentials (e.g., a username and/or password) in addition to their credit card number to complete a transaction with a merchant.
At least some known credit card networks (also known as interchange networks) have implemented initiatives or programs aimed at safeguarding against fraud. For example, Visa® and MasterCard® both support authentication initiatives whereby a cardholder is authenticated by the bank or financial institution issuing the financial transaction card (i.e., the issuing bank).
When using these types of authentication initiatives, the credit card network often ensures participating merchants that fraudulent transactions and other charge backs, will not be the merchants' responsibility provided the specified protocols have been followed. However, in order to participate in these authentication initiatives the merchants are required to have certain minimum computer processing capabilities. For example, a merchant may be required to have a certain computing power, memory, data storage capacity, etc. Further, the merchants are responsible for remaining current with initiative protocols that can change periodically.
In addition to providing information to satisfy the security measures/authentication initiatives implemented by merchants, issuing banks or other parties involved in the online purchasing process, cardholders must also manually provide other information to the merchant to complete the transaction. This information can include, for example, billing and/or shipping addresses, or the name, birth date, phone number, email address or other information concerning the cardholder. This information is typically received when the cardholder manually enters the information into a computer system/input device. The process of manually entering this information can be time-consuming and tedious for the cardholder. Furthermore, the user-entered information may contain errors (e.g., typographical errors) since it is manually provided by the user.
Accordingly, a system and method is needed that utilizes known protocols for communicating information between computer devices to exchange transaction data between the computer devices in order to enhance and further automate the transaction process. The system also should be capable of being implemented without requiring major changes to existing technology utilized by merchants for processing transactions. The system should also be easily implementable and updateable on a variety of merchant systems.